The Prime Minister has called on Labor MPs to show more internal discipline this year, as speculation about her leadership and a possible challenge from Kevin Rudd continue to stalk the party.

Julia Gillard told a special caucus strategy meeting on Sunday that a lack of discipline only helped the Liberal Party and that no-one joined the ALP to do that.

A caucus spokesman says three or four MPs later rose to agree with the Prime Minister that backgrounding journalists was not helpful.

He said Ms Gillard told Labor MPs that tough decisions made in 2011 had led to some political pain but that in 2012 the results of those decisions would be evident.

In particular, she mentioned the tax cuts and increases to welfare payments associated with both the carbon pricing scheme and the mining tax which come into effect on July 1.

The spokesman says the leadership speculation was mentioned only in the context of showing discipline and not talking to the media and that Kevin Rudd's name was not mentioned. Mr Rudd could not attend the meeting because he is overseas.

On Sunday evening after the meeting MPs gathered at the Lodge for a barbeque and continued discussion about the year ahead.

The leadership issue dominated the headlines in the lead-up to the the meeting and, but Ms Gillard told Channel Seven she will not try to bring the issue to a head.

"Because there's no need, I'm very confident in my leadership of the Labor party. I'm not going to determine what I do as Prime Minister because of headlines in newspapers. I'm going to determine what I do as Prime Minister for what's right for the nation," she said.

She has also defended her leadership style, rejecting suggestions she should change the way she presents herself to try to improve her standing in the opinion polls.

"I don't remember people looking at John Howard and saying 'Gee I wish he'd be warmer and cuddlier and more humorous and more engaging in his press conferences', they looked at him and said 'well he's the bloke running the country'," she said.

"And I think the same standard should apply to me, I'm a woman running the country, I don't ask people to come to the view that they want to have me round for dinner on Saturday night, that's not what I'm here to do."

Concerns about poor polling have been compounded by the Prime Minister's handling of the pokies reform deal and her office's involvement in the angry protests on Australia Day.

Publicly, however, senior ministers and backbenchers have only backed her leadership and insist she has the strong support of caucus.

Housing Minister Robert McClelland, whose support for Ms Gillard is reported to have waned following his demotion in last year's Cabinet reshuffle, insisted he supports the Prime Minister.

"It's just not an issue. There's no contest and Julia Gillard has my full support," he said.

He brushed aside questions about whether former leader Kevin Rudd should launch a challenge.

"He's said he's given his full support to the Prime Minister and that's it."

Leadership 'bug'

Employment Minister Bill Shorten, who was instrumental in ousting Mr Rudd from the leadership, likened the speculation to a "hoax".

"There's a lot of issues floating around in Canberra which I would describe as something akin to the Y2K Millenium bug. Everyone was talking about some great issue and then the morning after nothing happened," he said.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy says most Labor parliamentarians still support the Prime Minister.

"Julia Gillard continues, despite media reporting, to maintain the strong support of the vast majority of caucus despite media speculation," he said.

Tasmanian backbencher Dick Adams says he believes Julia Gillard will lead the party to the next election but says she has got a problem with voters.

"I don't think the Prime Minister has lost her credibility. I think she has a credibility issue with the public accepting what she says," he said.

But, when asked if it would be better for the ALP to change leader, Mr Adams failed to rule out a switch in the future.

He says most of the coverage of Labor leadership tensions is "a huge beat-up", although he conceded some of his colleagues were fuelling the speculation by talking to the media about internal party concerns.

"Sure, there's one or two individuals out there who are disgruntled," he told ABC1's Insiders.

"They are feeding some of these stories. But the great bulk of the coverage that I read is just completely divorced from reality."

But the speculation is unlikely to subside given the likelihood of more gloomy poll numbers in tomorrow's Nielsen poll and the resumption of Parliament on Tuesday.

The Opposition is widely expected to interrupt Parliament with a possible censure motion against the Prime Minister - a tactic it regularly used last year.

Victoria's laws for disclosing political donations have long been criticised as among the weakest in the nation, but Premier Daniel Andrews says his proposed reforms will make the state's donations laws "the strictest donation laws in the country".